spaceport magazine – april 2015
Post on 21-Jul-2016
222 Views
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
April 2015 Vol. 2 No. 4 National Aeronautics andSpace Administration
K e n n e d y S p a c e c e n t e r ’ S
m a g a z i n e
#HUBBLE25
NASA’S LAUNCH SCHEDULE
THE SPACEPORT MAGAZINE TEAM
Editorial Writers Group Graphics Group
Managing Editor ........... Chris Hummel Anna Heiney Bob Granath Richard Beard Amy Lombardo
Asst. Managing Editor ... Amanda Griffin Kay Grinter Linda Herridge Lynda Brammer Matthew Young
Editor ............................ Frank Ochoa-Gonzales Frank Ochoa-Gonzales Steven Siceloff Greg Lee
Assistant Editor ............. Linda Herridge
Copy Editor ................... Kay Grinter
Date: No Earlier Than April 13 -- 4:33 p.m. EDTMission: SpaceX CRS-6 Resupply Mission to International Space StationDescription: Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. SpaceX’s sixth commercial resupply mission under NASA contract to the space station will deliver several tons of supplies, including new science experiments and technology research.
Date: April 28 -- Time TBDMission: Progress 59P Cargo CraftDescription: The Progress resupply vehicle is an automated, unpiloted version of the Soyuz spacecraft that is used to bring supplies and fuel to the station.
Date: May 26 -- 3:46 p.m. EDTMission: Expedition 44 Launch to the International Space StationDescription: Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Kimiya Yui of JAXA and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, to the station.
Date: Aug. 6 -- Time TBDMission: Progress 60P Cargo CraftDescription: The Progress resupply vehicle is an automated, unpiloted version of the Soyuz spacecraft that is used to bring supplies and fuel to the station.
Date: Aug. 17 -- Time TBDMission: HTV5 Cargo Craft With CALET and MUSESDescription: The H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) is JAXA’s unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft that delivers supplies to the station (ISS). CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is an astrophysics mission. Multi-User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES) is a precision-pointing platform that will mount externally to the station.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER’S
SPACEPORT MAGAZINE
FRONT: In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, we polled the public to find out which image out of her impressive portfolio readers liked the most. With more than 1,000 likes, the star cluster Pismis 24 won by a landslide. The Spaceport Magazine staff agreed with you, our readers, and decided to give the image its rightful place on the front cover. Thank you for your input, and thank you for reading Spaceport Magazine.
Back: This image shows the dramatic shape and color of the Ring Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 57. From Earth’s perspective, the nebula looks like a simple elliptical shape with a shaggy boundary. The nebula is shaped like a distorted doughnut and and has a rugby-ball-shaped region of lower-density material slotted into in its central “gap.” Photo credit: NASA
Contents4 �������������������NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope turns 25
15 ����������������The man who changed astronomy
42 ����������������Commercial Crew readies for launches
46 ����������������Students developing safer spacecraft
48 ����������������Pioneers celebrate Women’s History Month
Aeronautics Research
Mars TechnologyEarth Right Now
ISSSolar
System & Beyond
Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest and greatest Kennedy Space Center updates.
www.facebook.com/nasakennedy
www.twitter.com/nasakennedy
READER’S CHOICE
I am a chemical engineer in the Materials Science Division where I work with a dynamic group of hard-working civil servants and contractors on technology development. Most of the technology development focuses on resource reutilization and generating fuel and life support commodities for long-duration or deep-space Mars missions.
In 2009, I was selected as a NASA co-op student, which is when I began working at Kennedy Space Center. I also support the Chemical Analysis Branch during investigations for space missions such as Lockheed Martin’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Exploration Vehicle.
In 2014, I was selected as a crew member for the Hawaii Space Exploration and Analog Simulation (HI-SEAS) 2 Mission. HI-SEAS is a Mars analog study. I simulated living on Mars in an isolated habitat with a six-person, international crew for a 120-day psychological investigation. The habitat was on the slopes of the Mauna Kea volcano at about 8,000 feet elevation. During the study, I performed various scientific research projects, including NASA’s Trash-to-Gas project.
I am a graduate of the 2012 NASA FIRST leadership development program where I met and worked with some of the agency’s most inspiring professionals in all different fields of the space program. At Kennedy, I co-chair the Launching Leaders early career group where we try to develop and connect young professionals both at work and within the local community. This academic year, I was able to continue my education and work towards a Ph.D. under a NASA fellowship in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of South Florida.
The people who work in the space program are some of the most motivated I have ever met, and I am privileged to work side by side with such wonderful people!
Annie Caraccio
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
www�nasa�gov
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope turns 25By Linda Herridge
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is a quarter-century old this month. Though only projected to be in service for 10 years when it launched aboard space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990, from Kennedy Space Center, the unique telescope is still a technological marvel 25 years later.
Orbiting 350 miles above the Earth and traveling at 17,500 miles per hour (5 miles per second), Hubble continues to reach back into time to capture stunning images of the universe and our own Milky Way Galaxy with its 100-inch-wide primary mirror. The telescope is credited with confirming the existence of black holes and discovering millions of galaxies and the birthplace of stars, relaying images almost too mind-boggling to comprehend.
Most recently, Hubble’s observations suggest the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. The subterranean ocean may contain more water than all of the water on Earth’s surface.
“This discovery marks a significant milestone, highlighting what only Hubble can accomplish,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “In its 25 years in orbit, Hubble has made many scientific discoveries in our own solar system.”
Former astronaut Grunsfeld made
several trips to upgrade Hubble. He performed a total of eight spacewalks during Servicing Missions 3A, 3B and 4.
In January 2011, the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope found what was thought at the time to be the most distant object ever seen in the universe. The object’s light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder. The very dim and tiny object is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the big bang.
Frank Cepollina, who has been with NASA for 52 years, was the project manager for the Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions. He was in the Launch Control Center firing room at Kennedy for all five Hubble servicing missions.
Cepollina is a huge supporter of satellite servicing and currently is project manager for satellite servicing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He credits Lymon Spitzer, a theoretical physicist and astronomer, and Joe Purcell, a noted physicist, for first suggesting that large telescopes should be built serviceable and modular, so that science instruments and components could be changed out and problems fixed.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, led the design, development and construction efforts
Solar System & Beyond
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope heads back toward its normal routine, after a week of servicing and upgrading by the STS-109 astronaut crew aboard space shuttle Columbia. Photo credit: NASA
of the large space telescope. Two primary contractors built Hubble. Lockheed Missiles and Space Company of Sunnyvale, California, produced the protective outer shroud and the spacecraft systems, and Perkin-Elmer Corp. in Danbury, Connecticut, developed the optical system and guidance sensors. Lockheed also assembled and tested the finished product.
Hubble’s journey to space began when it arrived at Kennedy in October 1989 on a U.S. Air Force C-5A transport jet from the Lockheed Martin facility in California. Hubble was transported to the Vertical Processing Facility (VPF), where prelaunch preparations were performed. The Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility also was used for offline processing of Hubble science instruments.
“You couldn’t ask for a more customer-friendly center than Kennedy,” Cepollina said. “We had, on average, 200 to 300 people at the center through processing and launch, including Kennedy, Goddard, Marshall, and support contractors.”
Bob Webster, NASA payload manager at the time, noted that Hubble arrived in a very unique shipping container built by the U.S. Air Force for military surveillance satellites. Hubble was transported to the pad using Kennedy’s payload canister.
Webster recalled several very unusual events that occurred during processing.
The VPF was operated as a class 100k clean work area (less than 100,000 particles larger than 0.5 micrometers in size). The requirement for Hubble’s sensitive instruments and lens was less than 20k. The payload processing team worked diligently to maintain the VPF at cleanliness levels between 2k and 5k. The Hubble Space Telescope Program brought with it an array of ground support equipment to test the telescope. Webster said two science instruments were installed in the telescope in the VPF.
“Normally, vertical payloads were transported to the pad before the shuttle,” Webster said. “We took Hubble to the pad late in the flow to minimize its time at the pad.”
The hypergolic fuel was loaded into Discovery and then Hubble was delivered to the pad and prepared for installation in the payload bay using the payload changeout room (PCR). But, hundreds of midges, a
kind of small fly, had hatched and settled on the payload bay doors, resulting in an unknown number of them getting into the PCR.
Webster said the PCR doors were quickly closed and an environmental team was called in to devise a system to remove the flies. Several lighted traps with small vacuum devices and dry ice were placed throughout the clean room to collect the tiny insects, a process that took about two days.
When the PCR was clear, the eight-hour process began to install and secure the nearly 44-foot-long Hubble in the shuttle payload bay for its trip to space. Precise measurements of the bay and the telescope had been taken in advance to ensure the clearances.
On launch day April 10, pilot Charlie Bolden, now the NASA Administrator, flipped the switches on the shuttle’s auxiliary power units (APU) and the launch team realized something was wrong. The flight was delayed two weeks while the faulty APU was changed out.
In a process that had never been planned for, the payload team removed Hubble’s batteries inside the payload bay and took them to the Space Shuttle Main Engine Facility in the Vehicle Assembly Building to keep them charged. A few days before launch, the batteries were reinstalled.
“Finally seeing it launch and then deployed was an exciting experience for the entire payload processing team,” Webster said. “I enjoyed working with the people on the Hubble team. I felt very proud and lucky to have this opportunity.”
Before retiring from NASA in 2000, Webster worked as a division chief in the Space Station Processing Facility, planning for International Space Station segment arrival and processing.
Hubble was serviced the first time in 1993 to correct a blurred lens, and four more times to upgrade or replace several of the telescope’s sensitive instruments. Each servicing mission increased Hubble’s ability to reach further and further back in time and improved the clarity of the images. Each time, the space shuttle would bring back Hubble parts and equipment to be refurbished and reused.
“That first servicing mission produced the picture that everybody’s seen, called the Eagle Nebula,” Cepollina said. “The mission essentially was written around re-establishing the dream.”
Sunlight reflects off the space shuttle Endeavour’s aft windows and NASA’s shiny Hubble Space Telescope before its post-servicing deployment near the end of the 11-day mission. A handheld Hasselblad camera was used inside Endeavour’s cabin to record the image. Photo credit: NASA
Astronaut John Grunsfeld, STS-125 mission specialist, positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis’ remote manipulator system, and astronaut Andrew Feustel (top center), mission specialist, participate in the mission’s fifth and final session of extravehicular activity as work continues to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. During the seven-hour and two-minute spacewalk, Grunsfeld and Feustel installed a battery group replacement, removed and replaced a Fine Guidance Sensor and three thermal blankets protecting Hubble’s electronics. Photo credit: NASA
Cepollina said there were significant societal implications through the course of the servicing program (20 years), from developing the technology to polish the optics on Hubble, which were anywhere from a dime to a quarter size in diameter, to the spherical accuracy needed to be able to correct the light coming into the telescope. The secret was an instrument called COSTAR, which had within it these corrective optics.
COSTAR also represented a great improvement in photolithography, a key process for improving transistor density on a chip. Making microchips is a function of being able to photolithographically create the individual transistors on the head of a pin. The sharper the lines, which are one one-thousandth of the diameter of a human hair, the more transistors can be placed on a pin.
More transistors increase the density of the chip, which increases computational ability and memory.
“One example: today’s technology has 260,000 times more processing power (i.e. the iPhone) than the original lunar landing vehicle,” Cepollina said. “It was a huge leap forward.”
On the second servicing mission, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) was installed on Hubble. Using its imaging spectrograph, STIS confirmed the existence of black holes.
“One of the very first observations was the M84 galaxy, which indicated there were black holes,” Cepollina said. “Because of this instrument, we now know there’s a black hole in the center of almost every major galaxy in the universe that we can observe.”
STIS also provided a technological push in the medical field, specifically in mammography. This instrument flew a detector that was being developed by the University of Kentucky Medical School. The school sent it to NASA to see if it could be improved upon for use on the STIS instrument. The detectors on that instrument became one of the key elements for the stereotactic breast cancer detection system.
“We did, and handed that technology back to them,” Cepollina said. “A year before we launched the STIS instrument to orbit, there were more than 1,000 of these Stereoscopic Imaging breast
biopsy machines in hospitals and doctor’s offices around the country.”
The tools developed to service Hubble were battery-operated systems, some with embedded microprocessors inside of them. Astronauts trained to use these tools. They learned how to program in the amount of speed, torque, turns and direction they wanted to accomplish the tasks.
“All they had to do was crank in the numbers, squeeze the trigger and they would get the right number of RPMs, right number of turns, right speed, clockwise or counter-clockwise motion, and out would come the bolt, or in would go the bolt,” Cepollina said.
“That is automation. That is microprocessors. That was a path to robotics.”
Another example was the shuttle’s robotic arm used to capture Hubble for servicing and then releasing it back into orbit.
“There are two major surgical robotic systems that are in operation today from which we learned and from which they learned from NASA,” Cepollina said.
The first is a machine called da Vinci, from a company called Intuitive Surgical, used to perform surgery. Another is the neuro-Arm, a Canadian-built surgical system, used to perform brain surgery on tumors. This surgical robot also can remove tumors that are growing near the central nervous system.
“Today there are more than 3,000 da Vinci machines. I recently learned that Intuitive Surgical is using the robot to remove gall bladders,” Cepollina said. “Just imagine what the medical field and robotic surgery will be like in 10 years.”
What’s next on the horizon after Hubble? Cepollina is studying the possibility of a
1,000-inch telescope, one with modular systems that could be built on the ground in pieces and carried on NASA’s Space Launch System, with an Orion crew that could assemble it with robot arms and send it into its final orbit.
“Let’s get out there and try something new. Let’s get back to the basics of dreaming a dream. Even though we think it may be impossible, something may happen that makes reality click. Although the dream may be impossible, maybe the results will still be startling,” Cepollina said.
#HUBBLE25
A technician carefully monitors progress as Discovery’s payload bay doors close around NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on April 8, 1990, at Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: NASA
A horizontal view of the launch of the STS-31 mission. Onboard space shuttle Discovery are the crew of five veteran astronauts and the Hubble Space Telescope. Official launch time was 8:33:51.0492 a.m. EDT. The crew included astronauts Loren Shriver, Charles Bolden Jr., Bruce McCandless, II, Kathryn Sullivan and Steven Hawley. Photo credit: NASA
This picture shows a galaxy known as NGC 6872 in the constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). Its unusual shape is caused by its interactions with the smaller galaxy that can be seen just above NGC 6872, called IC 4970. They both lie roughly 300 million light-years away from Earth. Photo credit: NASA
Solar System & Beyond
on March 6, 2008, the United states Postal service released a set of commemorative stamps designed by art ist Victor stabin honoring astronomer edwin Hubble and three other American scientists. Photo credit: United states Postal service
The man who changed astronomyBy Bob Granath
Edwin Hubble discovered the expanding nature of the universe. He also was the first to comprehend the nature of how fast galaxies move and his work became a major basis for the big-bang theory of how the universe began.
Hubble’s studies at the University of Chicago focused on mathematics and astronomy, which led to a bachelor’s degree in 1910. He then spent three years at The Queen’s College in Oxford, England, as one of the university’s first Rhodes Scholars, initially studying jurisprudence instead of science. After practicing law for one year, he decided to “chuck law” for astronomy.
“I knew that even if I were second or third rate, it was astronomy that mattered,” he said.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Hubble rushed in his dissertation for his doctorate, then volunteered for the US Army. After the war, Hubble
returned to England and spent a year in Cambridge, where he renewed his studies of astronomy.
In 1919, Hubble was offered a staff position at the Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California, where he served the remainder of his life.
Hubble’s arrival at the observatory coincided with the completion of the 100-inch Hooker Telescope, then the world’s largest. At that time, the prevailing view of the cosmos was that the universe consisted entirely of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Using the telescope at Mt. Wilson, Hubble identified changes in a star used to determine its distance from the galaxy. His observations made between 1922 and 1923 proved conclusively that several spiral nebulae were much too distant to be part of the Milky Way and were, in fact, entire galaxies outside the Milky Way.
This idea was opposed
by many in the astronomy establishment of the time. Despite the resistance, Hubble’s findings were published in The New York Times on Nov. 23, 1924, and then more formally presented in a paper at the Jan. 1, 1925, meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Hubble’s discoveries fundamentally changed the scientific view of the universe. Among his most significant came in 1929 when he determined that the farther a galaxy is from Earth, the faster it appears to move away. This notion of an “expanding” universe formed the basis of the big-bang theory, which states that the universe began with an intense burst of energy at a single moment and has been expanding since.
Many believe had Hubble not died suddenly in 1953, his work would have been honored with that year’s Nobel Prize in physics, which cannot be awarded posthumously.
Opposite: American astronomer Edwin Hubble uses the 100-inch Hooker Telescope on Mount Wilson near Los Angeles, California, to observe billions of other galaxies besides the Milky Way in 1924. Photo credit: NASA
NASA’s Hubble Telescope has made more than
An image called
shows the farthest galaxies ever seen
Astronomers using Hubble’s datahave published more than
Hubble orbits
above Earth
Hubble has traveled more than
while orbiting around the Earth
Hubble travels around the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour. That’s
scientific papers, making itone of the most successfulscientific instruments ever built
Hubble generates aboutHubble provides astronomers with an observable universe250 times larger than viewable from the ground, making the farthest reaches of the universe 13 billion light years away
Hubble has the accuracy of .007 arc seconds, which is like being able to shine a laser beam on a dime 200 miles away
of new data per year
1 MILLION
3 billion miles
12,700
5 miles per second10 terabytes
“Hubble Ultra Deep Field”
o b s e r v a t i o n s
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
www.nasa.gov
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 5 Y E A R S O F N A S A’ S H U B B L E S PA C E T E L E S C O P E
350 miles
NASA’s Hubble Telescope has made more than
An image called
shows the farthest galaxies ever seen
Astronomers using Hubble’s datahave published more than
Hubble orbits
above Earth
Hubble has traveled more than
while orbiting around the Earth
Hubble travels around the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour. That’s
scientific papers, making itone of the most successfulscientific instruments ever built
Hubble generates aboutHubble provides astronomers with an observable universe250 times larger than viewable from the ground, making the farthest reaches of the universe 13 billion light years away
Hubble has the accuracy of .007 arc seconds, which is like being able to shine a laser beam on a dime 200 miles away
of new data per year
1 MILLION
3 billion miles
12,700
5 miles per second10 terabytes
“Hubble Ultra Deep Field”
o b s e r v a t i o n s
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
www.nasa.gov
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 5 Y E A R S O F N A S A’ S H U B B L E S PA C E T E L E S C O P E
350 miles
Servicing Mission 1 - Restoring Hubble’s Vision
Dec. 2-13, 1993
Mission STS-61
Space shuttle Endeavour
Crew: Commander Richard Covey, Pilot Kenneth Bowersox, Payload Commander Story Musgrave, Mission Specialists Kathryn Thornton, Claude Nicollier, Jeffrey Hoffman and Tom Akers.
Servicing Mission 1 demonstrated NASA’s capability to service an
orbiting spacecraft in orbit. The mission’s most important objective was
to install two devices to fix Hubble’s vision problem.
The crew caught up with Hubble in orbit, captured it and placed it in the
shuttle’s payload bay for a tuneup.
During the nearly 11-day mission, mission specialists installed the Wide
Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and the Corrective Optics Space
Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) on Hubble. Both were designed
to compensate for the primary mirror’s incorrect shape.
Also, new solar arrays were installed to reduce the “jitter” caused
by excessive flexing of the solar panels during the telescope’s orbital
transition from cold darkness into warm daylight. New gyroscopes also
were added to help point and track the telescope.
NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, anchored on the end of the Remote Manipulator System arm, prepares to be elevated to the top of the towering Hubble Space Telescope to install corrective optics during Servicing Mission 1. Astronaut Story Musgrave, lower left, assists. Photo credit: NASA
During Servicing Mission 2, NASA astronauts Mark Lee and Steve Smith attached Multilayer Insulation (MLI) patches on the Hubble Space Telescope during flight day 8. Lee is standing on the Remote Manipulator System manipulator foot restraint as he attaches the MLI patches on the telescope. Smith comes up to watch and assist Lee. Photo credit: NASA
Servicing Mission 2 - Expanding Hubble’s Universe
Feb. 11-21, 1997
Mission STS-82
Space shuttle Discovery
Crew: Commander Kenneth Bowersox, Pilot Scott Horowitz, Mission Specialists Mark Lee, Steven Hawley, Gregory Harbaugh, Steven Smith and Joseph Tanner.
During the 10-day mission, mission specialists installed two technologically
advanced instruments on Hubble. The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-
Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) can observe the universe in the infrared
wavelengths. The second instrument, the Space Telescope Imaging
Spectrograph (STIS), is used to take detailed pictures of celestial objects and
to hunt for black holes.
Also installed on Hubble were a refurbished Fine Guidance Sensor, which is
used to provide pointing information for the spacecraft to keep it on target
and to calculate celestial distances. Hubble also received a new solid state
recorder, which replaced an older data recorder
Servicing Mission 3A - Holiday House Call
Dec. 19-27, 1999
Mission STS-103
Space shuttle Discovery
Crew: Commander Curtis Brown, Pilot Scott Kelly, Mission Specialists Steven Smith, Michael Foale, John Grunsfeld, Claude Nicollier and Jean-Francois Clervoy.
Astronauts paid the giant observatory a special holiday visit. The busy
mission included replacing all six of Hubble’s gyroscopes, which accurately
point the telescope at celestial targets. Also, one of three fine guidance
sensors, which allows fine pointing and keeps the telescope stable during
observations was replaced.
An advanced central computer, a digital data recorder and an electronics
enhancement kit also were installed, along with new outer layers of thermal
protection.
The crew of Discovery deployed Hubble back into orbit on Christmas Day.
During Servicing Mission 3, mission specialist Claude Nicollier stands on a portable foot restraint on the end of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm during the second of three extravehicular activities to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier and part of Hubble is seen in the background. A variety of tools are attached to the RMS work platform. Photo credit: NASA
Perched on the end of shuttle Columbia’s remote manipulator system arm, astronaut Michael Massimino removes the old solar array on the port side of the Hubble Space Telescope on March 5, 2002. Astronauts Massimino and James Newman went on to replace the array with a new one. A day earlier, two other astronauts accomplished the same feat on the starboard side. Photo credit: NASA
Servicing Mission 3B - Increasing Hubble’s View
March 1-12, 2002
Mission STS-109
Space shuttle Columbia
Crew: Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Duane Carey, Payload Commander John Grunsfeld, Mission Specialists Nancy Currie, James Newman, Richard Linnehan and Michael Massimino.
During the 11-day mission, crew members completed the principal
task, which was to install a new science instrument called the Advanced
Camera for Surveys (ACS). It was the first new instrument installed on
Hubble since 1997. ACS enhanced the telescope with its wide field of
view, sharp image quality and enhanced sensitivity. It doubled Hubble’s
field of view and collects data 10 times faster than the earlier surveying
instrument, WFPC2.
Astronauts also installed a new cooling system for the Near Infrared
Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). One of the four
reaction wheel assemblies that make up Hubble’s pointing control system
was replaced to correct steering of the telescope.
Servicing Mission 4 - Final House Call
May 11-24, 2009
Mission STS-125
Space shuttle Discovery
Crew: Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Gregory Johnson, Mission Specialists Megan McArthur, Andrew Fuestel, John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino and Michael Good.
For the final servicing mission, Discovery carried about 22,000 pounds
of hardware onboard, including four carriers containing new science
instruments, replacement hardware and tools to upgrade the telescope.
The objective was to prepare Hubble for long-term operation and
stability with new science-gathering capability.
Two new instruments were installed on Hubble: the Wide Field Camera
3 (WFC3) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS).
Astronauts removed Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 from
the first servicing mission to make room for WFC3. The new camera sees
three different kinds of light: near-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared,
though not simultaneously. The camera’s resolution and field of vision is
much greater than the previous instruments.
COS took the place of a device installed in Hubble during the first
servicing mission, the COSTAR. COS is a spectrograph that breaks
light into its component colors, revealing information about the object
emitting the light. It sees exclusively in ultraviolet light. COS improved
Hubble’s ultraviolet sensitivity at least 10 times, and up to 70 times when
observing extremely faint objects.
The crew also repaired the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)
and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Both had been installed on
Hubble during previous servicing missions.
For more information, visit the Hubble Space Telescope website at: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
Astronaut Andrew Feustel, STS-125 mission specialist, is positioned on a foot restraint on the end of shuttle Atlantis’ remote manipulator system May 16, 2009, as he moves the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) during the mission’s third session of extravehicular activity to upgrade and refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo credit: NASA
The Hubble Deep Field surveys will likely be thought of as Hubble’s most lasting science legacy. These observations continue to supply a wealth of understanding about the universe as a whole, the evolution of galaxies, and other fundamental information. Of these images the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is a favorite. It produces a strong feeling of depth, almost vertigo, to appreciate that we are looking at nearly the entire sweep of the cosmos filled by a seemingly infinite number of immense galaxies. Photo credit: NASA
This is an image of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula located about 8,000 light-years away, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This image reveals the true shape of MyCn18 to be an hourglass with an intricate pattern of ‘etchings’ in its walls. This picture has been composed from three separate images taken in the light of ionized nitrogen (represented by red), hydrogen (green), and doubly-ionized oxygen (blue). Photo credit: NASA
This spiral galaxy called Sombrero, is seen nearly edge-on. The dark band across the center is the result of material in the flat disk of the galaxy obscuring the light of stars and gas behind it. The glowing bulge holds a population of stars largely different from those in the flat disk. Look close to see numerous globular clusters, which appear as slightly fuzzy stars, each of which is itself composed of many hundreds of thousands of stars. Photo credit: NASA
Composed of gas and dust, the pillar resides in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from nearby stars are sculpting the pillar and causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of gas and dust can be seen flowing off the top of the structure. Photo credit: NASA
Astronauts John Grunsfeld (bottom) and Andrew Feustel, perched alone on the end of the space shuttle Atlantis’ remote manipulator system, perform the first of five STS-125 spacewalks to perform work on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, temporarily locked down in the cargo bay of the Earth-orbiting shuttle. The two mission specialists are assigned to two of the remaining four sessions of extravehicular activity. Photo credit: NASA
Saturn is seen here in ultraviolet light. Particles in Saturn’s atmosphere reflect different wavelengths of light in discrete ways, causing some bands of gas in the atmosphere to stand out vividly in an image, while other areas will be very dark or dull. This image reveals the properties and sizes of aerosols in Saturn’s gaseous makeup. Photo credit: NASA
A third red spot appears alongside its cousins -- the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr. -- in the turbulent Jovian atmosphere. This third red spot, which is a fraction of the size of the two other features, lies to the west of the Great Red Spot in the same latitude band of clouds. The new red spot was previously a white oval-shaped storm. The change to a red color indicates its swirling storm clouds are rising to heights like the clouds of the Great Red Spot. Photo credit: NASA
Galaxies collide! The titanic gravitational forces rip apart entire galaxies and they fall back together, forming completely different structures. Interacting galaxies provide some of the most interesting and varied visual forms known. Arp 273 is a particularly interesting example of this, with terrific form, a strong feeling of motion and power, yet extraordinarily graceful. Photo credit: NASA
The starburst galaxy is remarkable for its bright blue disk, webs of shredded clouds, and fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of its central regions. Throughout the galaxy’s center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside our entire Milky Way Galaxy. The fierce galactic superwind generated from these stars compresses enough gas to make millions of more stars. Photo credit: NASA
Commercial Crew rockets for launches already being builtBy Steven Siceloff
The codes AV-073 and AV-080 may
not mean much to many, but they mean a
whole lot to former astronaut Chris Ferguson
and the team of engineers and technicians
who will assemble the first Atlas V rocket
to launch a crew to the International
Space Station. That test and a precursor
flight without crew are part of the final
development work Boeing is completing
with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to
certify a new crew transportation system for
low-Earth orbit.
On its factory floor in Decatur, Alabama,
United Launch Alliance, or ULA, is
beginning to fabricate parts for the two
rockets that are to launch Boeing’s CST-100
spacecraft in 2017.
As Boeing’s director of Crew and Mission
Systems for the company’s commercial crew
division, Ferguson toured ULA’s assembly
factory this week to watch the rockets begin
to take shape. Ferguson’s last spacecraft,
NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis, already was
built and had achieved veteran spaceflight
status years before “Fergie,” as he is known,
climbed into the commander’s seat for
the last of the shuttle missions in 2011.
Beginning later this year, the CST-100
spacecraft that will launch atop the Atlases
will be assembled at another place familiar
to Ferguson, a former space shuttle hangar at
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
“The last time we were at this stage of
development for a human spacecraft was
in the 1970s when we were building the
shuttle,” Ferguson said. “I have Apollo
manuals on my desk -- not to copy designs
but to understand how they did it and to
validate the decisions we’ve made with regard
to provisions for the crew, what kind of
spacesuits they wear, what kind of seats they
sit in, and why they sit that way. Engineers
put an enormous amount of thought into
many low-level designs decades ago, but now
we’re trying to recreate the “why” behind all
that. It’s a little intimidating, but it’s fun. You
COME TOGETHER
Boeing’s Chris Ferguson said the first two Atlas V’s to launch the CST-100 will have a parking spot on United Launch Alliance’s factory floor in Decatur soon. Photo credit: ULA
ISS
learn why the space program took the shape
it is today over five decades ago.”
Just like airplanes, rockets have unique
tail numbers, or codes, that distinguish them
from one another. AV-073 is the 73rd Atlas
V that will be built, and AV-080 is the 80th
in the line of boosters. Both have another
distinguishing characteristic from other Atlas
V launch vehicles, as well – since no previous
Atlas V has carried people into space, these
will be the first to be certified to launch
humans. Up until this point, the rockets
have been used to lift more than 60 critical
missions without people: satellites, robotic
probes and even the Mars rovers.
“To have Chris come in and talk to the
team really put a face to the program,” said
Fred Hernandez, production operations
chief engineer for ULA. “We’re so used to
launching things, and so to get to see the
people involved in the launching of humans
means we’re that much closer to our goal.”
The factory is building pieces of the
rocket unique to the CST-100/Atlas V stack
that will be used in the testing regimen. The
adapter connecting the top of the rocket’s
upper stage to the spacecraft, for example,
is a new piece that has been meticulously
designed and must be built with equal care.
“There are a lot of different major
structures for the flight test vehicles that are
going through the factory now,” Hernandez
said.
Manufacturing also has begun for the fuel
and oxygen tanks of the Centaur upper stage
that will provide the final push to get the
CST-100 and its crews into Earth orbit.
“They begin constructing the rocket about
18 months in advance, so it’s still a little
early, but a lot of the parts that will go into
our first vehicle are here,” Ferguson said, “so
component-level assembly’s going on. We
don’t have a parking spot out here yet, but it
comes very soon. And by the end of the year
we will have an actual slot. It’ll become very,
very real when that happens.”
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program relied
on years of human spaceflight experience to
develop the requirements needed to ensure
transportation systems are qualified to fly
astronauts. Through a Commercial Crew
Transportation Capability,
or CCtCap, contract, NASA
will work with Boeing to
ensure its rocket, spacecraft
and associated ground and
mission systems are safe and
reliable.
For starters, each Atlas
V will carry an extensive
suite of sensors and fly
with a robust computer
that together will be able
to detect a problem in
the booster as it launches
and ascends into space.
Although unlikely to occur,
a problem severe enough
to risk the mission would
trigger an abort sequence
for the rocket that would
automatically eject the
spacecraft and carry its
astronaut crew back to
Earth safely. Additionally,
the boosters for the CST-100 flights will use
a Centaur upper stage fitted with two RL10
engines, instead of the usual single engine, to
provide added performance.
“We fortunately don’t see a lot of surprises
in manufacturing,” Hernandez said. “The
Atlas line builds 10 or 11 rockets a year, and
that rhythm alone helps to minimize a lot of
the issues that we could have.”
AV-073 will be outfitted as though it
is carrying a crew but will fly the CST-
100 without astronauts in an orbital flight
test, a significant step on Boeing’s path to
certification.
AV-080 is the rocket that will carry the
first people inside a CST-100 for a flight
into space. Still a flight test, the objective is
to launch the Atlas V from Space Launch
Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station and place the CST-100 on a path
to the station. Crew members will fly to
the orbiting laboratory and stay there for a
few days while the spacecraft’s systems are
evaluated for their performance. The flight
test crew would then use the vehicle to return
home to the United States, completing
the test.Although still about two years away,
the flight tests are close enough to prompt excitement and ramp up anticipation almost daily at the Atlas V assembly hall.
“We’re obviously very proud of our success rate, and we’re sort of taking the approach that we have a recipe for mission success, and we have to continue to execute on that,” Hernandez said. “If we keep that focus, that will transition over into the crew vehicles as well.”
An artist rendering of Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft on the launch pad with the Commercial Crew Access Tower. Image credit: United Launch Alliance
Students from the University of Texas at
El Paso (UTEP) are collaborating with NASA
engineers at the Kennedy Space Center in an
effort to use lessons learned from the past to
design safer spacecraft for the future.
The graduate and undergraduate
researchers are part of UTEP’s Center for the
Advancement of Space Safety and Mission
Assurance Research (CASSMAR). The
multidisciplinary research group has focused
on risk-reduction research to make spaceflight
reliable and successful.
Former NASA astronaut and UTEP
alumnus John “Danny” Olivas, Ph.D., is now
the university’s director of space initiatives
and also leads CASSMAR.
According to Olivas, development of
spacecraft such as Orion, those that are a
part of the Commercial Crew Program and
vehicles now on the drawing board, provide
opportunities for fresh ideas on design with a
focus on crew safety.
“The United States is at the dawn of a
new era of space exploration, so I am thrilled
about this development,” said Olivas, who
earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical
engineering from UTEP in 1989. “The
University has the right people and the right
facilities and capabilities to do this work.”
Olivas was awarded his doctorate in
mechanical engineering and materials science
from Rice University in 1996. He flew on
two space shuttle missions, STS-117 in June
2007 and STS-128 in August and September
2009.
Throughout its history, NASA has
continued efforts to make crew safety a
paramount focus incorporating experiences
from the past. This is especially true in
developing Onion and the agency’s work with
its industry partners in designing spacecraft
for the Commercial Crew Program (CCP).
NASA’s Orion spacecraft is designed to
expand human presence in deep space and
enable exploration of new destinations in the
solar system. It will take crews farther than
they’ve ever gone before, enabling missions to
asteroids and, eventually, to Mars.
Under CCP, Boeing and SpaceX are
developing spacecraft to transport astronauts
to the International Space Station from U.S.
soil.
Last summer, the UTEP students traveled
to Kennedy to work with engineers at the
Florida spaceport.
“We had the opportunity to host the
group from the University of Texas at El
Paso,” said Clara Wright, a NASA materials
engineer in Kennedy’s Engineering and
Technology Directorate. “They are examining
debris from the space shuttle Columbia in
order to learn about material behavior during
re-entry in hopes of making more reliable
vehicle designs. It is a continuation of the
Johnson Space Center-led Columbia Crew
Survival Investigation that we at Kennedy
supported.”
During their visit to Kennedy last
August, the UTEP students met with NASA
engineers such as Wright, toured materials
engineering laboratories, saw the Orion
spacecraft being prepared for its flight in
December, and examined the space shuttle
Atlantis.
As part of UTEP’s new research focus,
NASA’s Columbia Research and Preservation
Office at Kennedy has loaned the university
several debris pieces from the shuttle that
was lost along with its crew in 2003. Faculty
and students will initially focus on previously
unstudied materials-behavior issues that have
been observed in the specimens.
Late last year, Matt Garcia earned a
bachelor’s degree in metallurgical and
materials engineering at UTEP. Now a
graduate student, he believes much can be
learned from studying pieces of the debris.
Students applying lessons learned to develop safer spacecraftBy Bob Granath
STUDY TIME
Students from the University of Texas at El Paso examine debris pieces from space shuttle Columbia. From the left are Jessica Buckner, Ilse Alcantara and Brenda Arellano Photo credit: University of Texas-El Paso
“Each piece has a story to tell,” Garcia
said. “Different materials responded to the
stresses of spaceflight in a different manner.
We want to understand what provides the
greatest strength against the unyielding forces
of spaceflight and what materials provide the
most robust capabilities for spaceships of the
future.”
Ngozi Ochoa is working on a doctorate
in the Material Science and Engineering
Department at UTEP. Her research includes
performing studies of the titanium, nickel and
aluminum alloys in Columbia components to
better understand material behavior during
re-entry.
“We were able
to identify surface
compositions using
X-ray fluorescence,”
she said. “While no
conclusions have
yet been drawn, we
determined areas of
interest.”
“Each of the
shuttle Columbia
pieces we have
contain significant
and unstudied characteristics of the entry
environment which will demonstrate the need
for deeper investigation and understanding,”
Olivas said. “Some of the very same materials
are being used in the aerospace industry
today. Engineers are designing spacecraft with
limited knowledge of how these materials
react in the re-entry environment. Our
goal is to perform the necessary research to
broaden knowledge for the entire spacefaring
community.”
Brenda Arellano, a UTEP graduate
research assistant who also is pursuing a Ph.D.
in materials science and engineering, says
there were some surprises in their findings.
“For the most part our visual inspection
focused on how different the material held
up,” she said, “but we didn’t expect the extent
of texturing and depositions on the materials
caused by re-entry burns. Our future studies
may need to focus on improvements in
commonly used spacecraft materials such as
titanium alloys in order to create a stronger
spacecraft structure.”
Arellano says she hopes their research
and the efforts of others lead to a better
understanding of how various material
withstand the extreme forces experienced in
travel beyond Earth.
Experts at Kennedy are already working
on better metal alloys. Wright is the principal
investigator in a project called “SMASH,”
for Shape Memory Alloy Self-Healing, a
technology that creates metals that, when
damaged, can repair themselves.
According to Garcia, making flight safety
a paramount concern will always be the key to
avoiding problems in flight.
“No matter how much effort we put
into designing better spacecraft, there will
always be risk,” he said. “Against the stresses
of launch, flying beyond Earth and entering
the atmosphere, the best vehicles can still
be fragile. While we want to make sure we
build the strongest, best spacecraft possible,
attention to detail will always be crucial.”
“The UTEP CASSMAR group is going
to be conducting the research for a few years
so I think that it’s always a good story,” said
Wright, “especially because they’re trying
to use lessons learned from the Columbia
accident as a way to make future spacecraft
safer.”
Ochoa noted that she appreciates the
experience working with engineers at
Kennedy and the opportunity to study the
Columbia debris.
“We are excited to be able to share our
findings, hopefully making an impact, even
if small, on future spaceflight developments,”
she said.
Olivas believes the legacy of Columbia is
really about learning.
“Researchers investigating her will learn
what we can do
to be safer in the
future so that
accidents like this
do not happen
again,” he
said. “Students
are going to
have a unique
opportunity
to be a part
of the leading
edge of space
exploration. These future space pioneers will
be doing research in new fields that have never
been fully explored for applicability to space
environments.”
As executive director of CASSMAR at
UTEP, Darren Cone also is pleased with
the experience his students are receiving by
collaborating with engineers at Kennedy.
“I’m really glad this effort is getting some
attention, as we feel it is highly relevant to our
country’s future in manned spaceflight,” he
said.
“Spaceflight is a collaborative solution,”
Olivas said. “As an astronaut, you don’t get
to space on your own; you stand on the
shoulders of giants who put you there.”
The graduate and undergraduate researchers are part of University of Texas at El Paso’s Center for the Advancement of Space Safety and Mission Assurance Research (CASSMAR) organization From the left are Matt Garcia, Mayra Contreras, Mayela Aldaz-Cervantes, Brenda Arellano, Jessica Buckner, Ngozi Ochoa and Ilse Alcantara. The multidisciplinary research group has focused on risk-reduction research to make spaceflight reliable and successful. Photo credit: University of Texas-El Paso
Girl PowerRole in space travel highlights Women’s History Month
By Kay Grinter
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center celebrated Women’s History Month by inviting employees to hear a panel of leaders and directors from NASA’s past and present -- all accomplished women -- discuss the stories of their lives and careers with the agency.
George Jacobs, deputy director of Center Operations, was Master of Ceremonies for the event held March 26 in the Kennedy Learning Institute. NASA is “no longer a ‘good ole boys’ network,” he observed as he introduced the distinguished panel.
Providing their insights were Kennedy directors Josie Burnett of the International Space Station Ground Processing and Research Project Office, Nancy Bray of Center Operations, and Digna Carballosa of Human Resources. Also participating was Rita Willcoxon, former director of Launch Vehicle Processing, now retired from NASA and employed by General Electric Transportation in Melbourne, Florida.
Gordy Degear, program analyst in the Office of the Center Director and facilitator for the program, opened the discussion by asking the panelists what brings them happiness. All agreed that family fulfilled them and made their time away from home worthwhile.
Burnett recalled a time when her three-
year-old grandson recognized her in a photo posted online, in which she was shaking hands with NASA’s Robonaut before it was flown to the International Space Station. He was delighted. “It made me proud that he’s proud of the work I do,” she said.
Degear next asked the panelists to describe the changes they had witnessed during their careers.
Willcoxon recalled that Joann Morgan and Ann Montgomery were the only women in technical management positions when she started working at the center. Morgan, an engineer, was the only woman during the Apollo launches who supported the countdowns from the firing room; Montgomery was the first woman assigned as a flow director for a space shuttle, the orbiter Columbia.
At the moment, Kennedy’s Executive Team is made up of ten men and nine women, including Kennedy’s Deputy Director Janet Petro and Chief Financial Officer Susan Kroskey. After commenting that three of Kennedy’s four primary programs and projects are led by women, Bray got a positive response from the largely female audience when she observed “women are taking us into outer space.”
How can we keep this trend growing? By encouraging girls to study the STEM disciplines in school -- science, technology,
engineering and mathematics -- the components of NASA’s education initiative, all agreed. Students generally decide “by the fifth grade whether to go into STEM fields,” Carballosa commented.
The percentage of “girls going into engineering hasn’t changed in 15 years,” Willcoxon said. We should “look for ways to inspire girls to go into engineering,” she suggested. Burnett concurred and raised the question educators ponder of whether engineers are “born or derived.”
Degear asked the panelists if, in looking back over their careers, there was anything they would do differently.
Bray said that she learned it is important to give employees ample career-development opportunities and found IDPs helpful, bringing a playful groan from the audience. The IDP, or individual development plan, is a tool NASA uses to clarify an individual’s long-term career goals. While requiring upfront thoughtful introspection, the plan is valuable in identifying an employee’s future steps on her career path.
Carballosa got a chuckle from the audience when she suggested that she would “learn to delegate earlier.” Women have a tendency to do everything themselves, she explained, and in doing so may deprive their employees of valuable learning experiences. She encouraged everyone to strive to remain relevant to the organization.
“Staying relevant is a personal commitment one makes in whatever role we happen to be in,” Carballosa said. “If you need help linking your job to the mission, challenge your supervisor to help you make this connection.”
The event was planned and implemented by members of Kennedy’s Federal Women’s Program (FWP). The purpose of FWP is to provide focus on issues affecting female employees, such as employment, retention, promotion, training, career development and advancement opportunities. Membership is open to everyone at Kennedy, including both civil service and contractor employees.
Employees listen as Women’s History Month panelists share their experiences. Photo credit: Tony Gray
KSC Scenes
MMS launchA United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with nAsA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMs) spacecraft onboard launches from space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force station in Florida on March 13. the Atlas V rocket carried four identical MMs spacecraft into orbit to provide the first three-dimensional view of magnetic reconnection.
Photo credit: nAsA/Aubrey Gemignani
Images of the Month
aStronaut SPaceSuit teStinG for orion SPacecraftengineers and technicians at nAsA’s Johnson space Center in Houston are testing the spacesuit astronauts will wear in the agency’s orion spacecraft on trips to deep space. on March 17, members of the Johnson team participated in a Vacuum Pressure Integrated suit test to verify enhancements to the suit will meet test and design standards for the orion spacecraft. During this test, the suit is connected to life support systems and then air is removed from Johnson’s 11-foot thermal vacuum chamber to evaluate the performance of the suits in conditions similar to a spacecraft. the suit, known as the Modified Advanced Crew escape suit, is a closed-loop version of the launch and entry suits worn by space shuttle astronauts. the suit will contain all the necessary functions to support life and is being designed to enable spacewalks and sustain the crew in the unlikely event the spacecraft loses pressure.this is the first in a series of four tests with people in the suits to evaluate the performance of the spacesuit systems in an environment similar to a spacecraft.
Learn more about where the suits are tested or track all of the latest news at www.nasa.gov/orion.
Photo credit: nAsA/Bill stafford
Since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has transformed our understanding of the universe with its clear, deep, and stunning images. Here are a few spinoffs from the orbiting eye in the sky.
Mirror technology increases seMiconductor productivity, perforMance
The semiconductor industry has benefited from the ultra-precise mirror technology that gives the HST its full optical vision and telescopic power. This technological contribution helped improve optics manufacturing in microlithography -- a method for printing tiny circuitry, such as in computer chips.
optics tool sharpens record-breaking ice skates
Olympic record-holding speed skater Chris Witty raced her way to a gold medal in the 1,000-meter at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Witty and other American short- and long-track speed skaters used a blade-sharpening tool designed with the help of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and technology from HST.
Micro-endoscope refines Medical diagnosis
In 2004, the cutting-edge technology that enhances Hubble’s images began helping physicians perform micro-invasive arthroscopic surgery with more accurate diagnoses with a tool that enables surgeons to view what is happening inside the body on a screen, eliminating the need for a more invasive diagnostic procedure that could add time, money, and discomfort to a patient’s treatment.
ccds enable clearer, More efficient biopsies
Charge coupled devices (CCDs) used on the HST to convert light into electronic files-- such as a distant star’s light directly into digital images -- have been applied to many of the NASA-driven enhancements to the manufacture of CCDs for digital mammography biopsy techniques, using CCDs to image breast tissue more clearly and efficiently. This allows doctors to analyze the tissue by stereotactic biopsy, which requires a needle rather than surgery. Image credit: CSii and MDA
hubble software powers terrestrial observatories
With the help of a software suite created by a NASA industry partner in 1995, students and astronomers were able to operate a telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory Institute via the Internet. The software is still widely in use for various astronomy applications; using the CCD technology, the software locates, identifies and acquires images of deep sky objects, allowing a user to control computer-driven telescopes and CCD cameras.
For more information about NASA spinoffs, visit spinoff�nasa�gov
HUBBLE SPINOFFS
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
John F� Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899 www�nasa�gov
SPACEPORT MAGAZINESP-2015-03-149-KSC
top related